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Friday, September 25, 2009

is part of why I am homeschooling. I am absolutely horrified speechless.

"I am the LORD your GOD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your GOD, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments." -Exodus 20:2-6

"But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." -Matthew 18:6

When a teacher can get away with writing praise and worship songs to a human leader, and the principal nor the parents say boo about it, we are in a world of trouble. Or maybe 4 generations of a world of trouble.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Before I get to the good stuff, I wanted to let you know why this is 2 days early. Well you see, my Nana is in the hospital and rumor has it she's not doing so well so I'll be leaving for the weekend to go see her. So here's Friday's post early and I will probably not get to post again until Monday as I will be gone. I hope you all have a terrific weekend! See you on Monday...

Pumpkin Walnut Bread & Salted Pumpkin Seeds
DAY 1 OF SEEDS, PUMPKIN PREP:
You will need 1 pie pumpkin, a couple of helpers, a sharp knife, trash can, bowls, a cheese grater, a strainer, and some salt.
Cut the pumpkin into 6ths or 8ths so it's easy to handle. Have your helpers clean the seeds and goo out. Throw the stringy goo away and put the larger of the seeds in a pile or a strainer basket. If you have a 3 year old they will probably try to eat the seeds whole and slimy. This will not hurt them, but may gross you out. Or maybe this is only MY 3 year old? Peel the dark orange shell off the outsides of the pumpkin chunks with the knife. Only go about a milimeter deep. You just want to get the outside off and not waste alot of the meat. Hand the peeled chunks to another helper to rinse off and grate with the cheese grater.
Have another helper gently rinse the seeds in the strainer so they don't go down the drain, and then put the rinsed seeds in a clean bowl. Pour in a LOT of salt on the seeds, about half as much salt as there are seeds. Run the tap until the water is hot and fill the salt/seeds bowl to where the water covers the seeds. Set this bowl in a warm safe place to soak overnight.
If you are baking your bread at a later date, put the grated pumpkin in a freezer bag and freeze. Will stay good in the freezer for a month or two. Thaw an hour before baking - also a good time to take the butter out to soften too. If you are baking it right away, proceed to bread recipe.

DAYS 2 & 3 OF SEEDS:
After soaking them in saltwater overnight, drain the seeds through a strainer and then spread on a paper towel for a bit to drain some more.
RAW- Change to a fresh dry paper towel after about an hour and leave on the paper towel to dry again overnight in a warm dry place. Leave them drying for about a week.
ROASTED- Spread drained seeds evenly on a lightly oiled baking sheet that has sides. Bake in the oven at 250 degrees for about an hour until they start to brown, stirring them with a pancake turner every 10-15 minutes. Remove and cool. Enjoy. Store in a dry place.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line with aluminum foil and/or grease & sugar bottoms and sides of 2 large or 3 medium loaf pans.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Stir in pumpkin, water, eggs and vanilla.
In seprate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and baking powder. Mix well. Add to wet ingredients and mix well. Mix in nuts.
Pour into pans. Bake until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean- about an hour and 10 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before removing from pans. Cool almost completely before attempting to slice. If bread is still hot it will not slice pretty. Lukewarm is okay.
Will store in refrigerator in a ziplock or saran wrap for up to 10 days. Will store in freezer for a month or two- wrap in foil and then put into a gallon ziplock bag and then in freezer. If you baked it in foil lined pans, just wrap the existing foil up and over the top and stick the whole thing in a ziplock in the freezer.
Althoug seriously you're gonna smell it baking and that will be the end of your thoughts of freezing some for later. Seriously. It will be gobbled up faster than you can say "Pumpkin Walnut Bread!" ;)

The Autumn Dishcloth giveaway seemed like such a hit that I decided to do it again! ;) So if you didn't win last time, here's your chance to try again! And this time, I'm throwing in a little cookbook this time as a bonus.

The winner will receive the 3 items pictured above. :)

TO ENTER:

1. Leave a comment on this post. COMMENT MUST have your email linked into it or have email posted in it so I have a way to get ahold of you.

2. If you are a public follower, or become a public follower of this blog before the giveaway is over, please make a SEPRATE post telling me you're a follower and it will count as a second entry (if you have entered first with a comment as detailed above).

3. For MORE ENTRIES, Make a blog post (and/or Tweet) with the link to this giveaway and then come back and post a seprate comment on this post saying you have blogged/tweeted it so that I can check.

PRIZE:
The prize is a small cookbook called "Fresh Foods" and a set of two 100% cotton dishcloths as seen in the photo. One is a ripple pattern, and one is made to look like a leaf. These are crocheted by me. We do not smoke nor allow anyone to smoke in our home, we do not have a dog, BUT we do have a cat, a rather hairy one at that, so if you're allergic you might wanna put the dishcloths straight into the washing machine before you oogle them. ;)

DISCLAIMER:

The usual. The dishcloths are a labor of love, handmade with care. Being hand made, each one is a UNIQUE one of a kind creation. I did NOT use a pattern for these! I once again made it up as I went along, although at least this time I had practice from before and knew what the end result would look like. I do plan on writing down the pattern for the leaf one someday. I retain all rights to the design and would appreciate it if you would not try to copy the leaf to sell, because that would be stealing and stealing is bad.

If you wish to purchase a set as a gift for someone, or for yourself should you enter but not win, I would be more than happy to see what I can work out for you! I can make a pair up in a week if the kids let me. ;) Contact me at mamamirage (atsign) yahoo (dot) com for more information.

I cannot refund or replace your prize for any reason because it is a gift, not a purchase.

I am not responsible to compensate you in any way for the results of any technological errors or glitches, any typos, any misunderstandings, any misuse/loss/damages of the prize after it has left my hands, and I am not responsible to compensate you for the prize not being what you expected.

I am not responsible for anything that happens to it in the mail. After it leaves my hands and enters those of the USPS, any delays or damages are the fault of the US postal system and I am not liable.

I'm not rich so it will be shipped cheap and may therefore be slow to arrive.

Please understand I'm a mommy and I know you moms know how hard it can be to get to the post office with multiple toddlers. So please extend me some grace if I am slow to get it to the P.O. for mailing. I will try to let you know when I have mailed it so you know when to expect it.

WINNING:

MUST BE IN THE USA TO ENTER at this time. I'm really sorry but I cannot afford the shipping out of the country. I wish I could and if at a later date I am able to afford that, I will have giveaways open to everyone!

Giveaway ends when I wake up the morning of Wednesday, September 30th. At that time I will lock the replies and that will signal the end of the giveaway. I will announce the winner as soon as I can on Wednesday.

To claim your prize you must check my blog and/or your email on Wednesday, September 30th to see if you've won and if so, you must reply to me via email with your mailing address as soon as possible. If you have not gotten your mailing address to me by October 6th, the prize will be forfeited.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Congratulations Melissa! Please email me mamamirage (at) yahoo (dot) com with your mailing address so I can get those out to you! :) I hope you enjoy them! I let you know when they have been mailed.

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Georgiann I sent the bonnet you won last week to work with my husband today and he said he would mail it so you should be getting it soon! :)

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I will be doing another giveaway starting tomorrow (Wednesday) and every Wednesday that I have something worth giving away from now on, so keep checking back! :) Don't forget that if you are already a follower or become a follower you need to make a seprate entry telling me this! Today my blog is glitching and I could not see my list of followers no matter how many times I refreshed the page so this is why it's helpful for me to keep track if you post it even if it seems silly to you to post that you're a follower when I have my little Google list already up in the corner there telling me who is following.

This afternoon I found an old pouch type carrier I crocheted and put Bug (13 months) in it. He is so heavy that it sags down and he is completely buried in it, but can see out between the stitches. I picked him up and down, slung the pouch over my shoulder like a purse, and pretended I didn't know where I misplaced my baby. He was meanwhile giggling so hard he kept nearly choking on giggles. I then took the bag off my shoulder and handed it to my husband who opened it and "surprise!" there was a baby in there. Bug got such a kick out of the game he was in hysterics laughing so hard!

Chicklet (3) informed me this morning that she needed m&m's for breakfast.

Chicklet is terrified of the vacuum cleaner. When I turn it on she cries and climbs on the table or couch to get away from it. The other day my husband was vacuuming in the hallway for me (isn't he a prince?) and Chicklet was perched on the back of the tallest couch. Bug was crawling around the living room and I heard Chicklet say, "Ack! A shark!" When Bug heard her voice he began crawling toward her at top speed and then stood up and tried to reach for her. She was screeching about the shark (I assume that would be Bug) trying to get on her boat (the couch?) and both kids were laughing and had forgotten all about the vacuum in the hallway.

The day after my dear husband vacuumed for me, I was draining some meat as I was cooking supper and Bug was in the walker. Chicklet reached up on the island and got Bug's can of puffs, telling me that Buggie needs a snack. Ummm... So I finished draining my meat, put water in my pot and set it on the stove, and looked up in time to see Chicklet replacing the container back on the island. I looked over at Bug, who was trying to get his walker back up into the kitchen (going backwards I might add- silly boy) from the living room (there is a 1/2 inch drop from the tile to the carpet), and saw Chicklet had given him just a few puffs:

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If you have a sweet, cute, or funny Toddler (or kid) story, I'd love it if you'd share it here in the comments! :) If you would like to post a Toddler Tales Tuesday on your blog, please just leave a link back to my blog in your post so people can see where you got the idea. You may leave a link to your post in my comments on the condition that you also post a comment! No link-and-runs please! ;) (I am still figuring out basic blogging so this will have to do until I am experienced enough to attempt a Mr. Linky or something.)

Monday, September 21, 2009

Breakfast Burritos
You will need large tortillas, eggs, potatoes chopped into small chunks, salt and pepper to taste, and cooked chopped meat if you eat meat- sausage or bacon or any kind you prefer or have leftover. You may add a chopped onion if you'd like. You have to go by how much you think your family will eat and like of each of the ingredients. It's not an exact science, you just add more of what you have more of and less of what you have less of and fill in the gap with eggs.
You will also need grated cheese.
To start, in an extra large skillet, put your meat and potatoes and onion and cook them until the meat is done but not overdone and the potatoes are cooked through. Add salt/pepper and eggs to make enough to feed your family and scramble it until it's done. Put a big scoop of scrambled egg mixture on a tortilla and sprinkle with cheese. Roll it up and serve hot.

If it suits you, you could add chopped bell peppers with the onions. Add or subtract whatever sounds good to you.

Tonight my husband brought home a pie pumpkin. Cutest little thing it was! We do not celebrate Halloween but my 3 year old Chicklet has seen puimpkins around in autumn displays and learned what they are called. The other day she came up to me and asked me, "Mama? Do we need to get a pumpkin?" I had to laugh. I don't know where she got the notion that we needed one. Probably just wanted to see a real one since she'd never seen a real one. So tonight my husband walks in with a little pie pumpkin and asks me to hand it to Chicklet for him while he puts down his armload of stuff. She grinned huge, took it, turned over and over, asked, "What is it?" and then looked up with an ah-ha look and exclaimed, "It's a pumpkin! Is it Daddy? Is it a pumpkin?" It was so cute! She then wanted to open it and eat it so after putting little Bug to bed, the three of us took that pumpkin apart. :) It was such a special time, with me slicing and peeling chunks of pumpkin, my husband washing them off and grating them, and Chicklet sitting in front of me with a huge grin and a pile of slimy pumpkin seeds in front of her, eating them. I tried to convince her to wait until they'd been washed, salted, and roasted before eating them because they would taste better. But she wouldn't have it, she just smiled sweetly and told me they were yummy as she stuck another slimy seed in her mouth. And of course I just smiled back and let her have her pumpkin seeds as she liked- what kind of mother would I be to dampen the spirits of a 3 year old helping to take apart her first pumpkin? ;) We are going to make yummy pumpkin bread out of it, maybe tomorrow or the next day, and she is going to love helping with that as much as she did the first stage I think. :) I just love these sweet family moments, these special memories!

This is a post that you really should read. We as mothers (and fathers) have an obligation to our sons to raise them up to be REAL men. Book learning and a few good manners are a wonderful start but they also need to have a good work ethic, integrity, and the willingness to FOLLOW THROUGH and TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for their actions! And not only our sons, but our daughters too! Do your kids know how to help around the house? do a thorough job? fess up and pay for it if they break or loose something? respect adults?

To mothers of daughters, what kind of man do you want your sweet daughter to marry? Do you want her to marry someone like one of the boys in the linked post?
Do you want your sons to marry decent hardworking girls? If we aren't careful to make sure they don't turn out like the ones in the linked post then what decent sort of girl would have them?

My son is only 1 year old and my daughter only 3 so I really don't think long and often about dealing with their character as teens, but that post was a good wake up call. It reminded me again that these toddler years are so precious and valuable in character training and I should not put off thinking about their adult character until they are teens. Now, I do know this already that character training begins at birth, as I'm sure you already know too, but don't we just get so caught up in daily life sometimes that it's good to have a reminder to bring us back? Here was a post that served as a reminder to me to get my thinking back on track, so I wanted to share it with you dear mothers. Perhaps you needed the reminder today, and perhaps you did not. I hope you get something good out of it anyway. :)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

I am a tad bit busy this afternoon and also a wee bit short on inspiration due to being up with kiddos all night and feeling quite tired. So I hope you will forgive me, instead of writing a new post right now I'm just going to refer you to a post from one of my other blogs for your daily dose of fresh reading material. ;)

Some believe that once you're 'saved' you're saved no matter what you do afterward. I just read a comment on another blog that said the person didn't get, "...how Jesus would allow someone who committed unthinkable crime and denied Him all their life, get into heaven JUST for saying a simple prayer when he was 8." Well I agree- that pretty much sums up why I don't believe the once-saved, always-saved philosophy. But on the opposite end of the spectrum I don't believe that God yanks your name out of the Book of Life every time you make a mistake and you have to say the sinners prayer again to get put back on the nice list. I also don't believe loss of salvation has anything to do with you getting snached away from God, but that you leave Him of your own accord. So here's what I get out of my Bible on the subject;
Saying a prayer in and of itself will not get you to heaven. Good works will not get you to heaven. For by FAITH through grace we are saved, not by WORKS lest any man should boast. That means just being a good person won't get you to heaven. Why? Because ALL people have sinned. Every one. The wages of sin is death - that means any sin - but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus. The wages of robbing a bank is death. The wages of murdering is death. The wage of thinking a lustful thought is death. The wage of sassing your mama is death. All sin is sin. Sin cannot enter heaven because God is holy and sin cannot be in heaven with the holy God. So if you sin, even an eensy weensie bit, you cannot go to heaven. And obviously everyone on this earth has sinned at some point whether they realize it or not. So the only way to heaven is to have Someone pay your way in for you, since the price of a ticket to Paradise is one pure and blameless, sinless human life. And there is only One who can pay that price for you - Jesus. So you have to believe that Jesus is who He says He is because if He's not, then He can't afford your ticket either.
And if you truely believe that Jesus is Who He says He is, then you will want to please Him. You will be thankful for him paying the price you could never pay so you could get into heaven.
Say you're waiting at the gates of the Superduperbowl, and the tickets are so expensive that there's only one man on the planet rich enough to buy tickets- the only son of the owner of the Superduperbowl arena. If you try to go through the gates without a ticket, you would be arrested. So say someone comes up to you and offers to pay for your ticket. He says he's the son, the only man on earth who can afford your ticket and he wants to pay for your way in. You won't accept the gift if you don't believe he is who he says he is, right? You would mock him and laugh and say, "Hey no way dude, I have a plan to sneak in or bribe or beg or whatever because you can't possibly be THE SON! Haha! You're probably just trying to make me look like a fool!" But if you DO believe he is who he says he is, you would feel so grateful that he would do this for you asking nothing in return that you would make conversation with him, try to get to know him, try to please him, try to express to him somehow how very grateful you are! You would want to tell everyone you met about how wonderful this son is! You would want your friends to get into the game with you! You would be so happy and excited! You would not leave his side and if you did, if you stumbled or forgot yourself and acted like an ingrate or were rude to him, you would apologize, ask forgiveness, and keep trying to do better, thankful all the way that he did not go back on his offer every time you messed up!
Now lets try a different hypothetical. Let's say you didn't really believe he was the one he said he was, but you pretended to. You might have even convinced yourself at the moment that he was the one, but then you got to doubting and overthinking it and decided to go your own way. Or you did believe at first but then decided that making nice was too much trouble, you'd rather go off with your friends and do what makes you feel good and hang out with people who like to bash the son with words and actions. If you are not with HIM at the gate because after accepting his offer you decided to go your own way, how can he pay for your ticket? He can't! You left him! Or what if someone tells you he can pay your way but they are not the son. Maybe they claim to be, maybe they claim to be someone else of power who can get you through the gate. Well no matter how much you believe in them, how good and nice you are, and how far you follow them, if they can't pay the price of one sinless, 100% pure human life for your ticket, then you're not getting in that gate.
Does that make sense? If you believe in Jesus, you will want to do what is right to please Him. If you fall he's not going to change His mind and leave you there alone of course. He'll hold out His hand to you to help you back up. But if you decide to stay on the ground and not get up, or go your own way, or follow someone who cannot pay the price, then you're not going to be able to get in that gate! The sinner's prayer isn't a wristband for the county fair. The event IS HEAVEN; the *journey* there isn't what we're buying a ticket for! The journey is for getting to know the One who is paying our way. Because if you don't know Him by the time you get to the gate, you won't have a ticket.

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I ♥ comments! Real ones... My blog is NOT a billboard for you to advertize your giveaways all over. Many other blogs have giveaway linkys for that purpose.
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I ♥ to get new readers but I do NOT want anyone to follow me just to get more followers- please ONLY follow me if you enjoy what I write. I likewise will not follow people back merely because they follow me- I only follow blogs that I will actually read! So please know that if I follow you it's because I genuinely like what I see on your blog and want to come back often, and that I want people to pay me the same respect by only following if they genuinely want to keep coming back for more. God bless you!

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Me, Mirage

I'm a 30 year old wife of 11.5 years to my Knight in Shining Armor, and Mama to FOUR (*whispers: five!*) energetic tots ages 7 and under! No, "Mirage" is not my real name, but it's been a part of each of my screen names since before I got married. I love to read, write, and crochet. Sometimes I like to sew but I'll never be as good at it as my own Mama was. I'm falling more and more in love with my Saviour Jesus every day! He is teaching me and molding me and I am trying not to be too difficult about it... ;) I'm into herbal and natural remedies, natural childbirth, and cooking. I grew up on a farm and love goats! When I was a child I wanted to marry a Godly man and have lots of kids. This has always been my life's dream... I am living that dream married to my Knight and bringing up my blessings for Jesus!

Chicklet, age 7

Chicklet is a sweet and loving sister to her younger brother and sisters. She is finally in 2nd grade, much to her delight! She's got an amazing memory and she's a very concerned and sharing person. Her favorite thing in the world to do is draw pictures, which she has an amazing God-given talent for. She loves learning new things and gets excited about doing her schoolwork and helping me with daily chores. She also loves to read very much and for her birthday, requested to go to the bookstore and pick out a new book. :)

Bug, age 5

My busy Bug! He loves spiders and trains and taking things apart. He has the cutest smile! He loves to be my special helper but he loves to be Daddy's special helper more... ;)

Weetsie, age 3

Sweetie-weet, aka Weet or Weetsie, is a real handfull! She's always busy, when she's not snuggled up in my lap, and always into something! She loves to follow me around doing whatever I do. She enjoys coloring, sometimes in her coloring book but when nobody's looking she finds the refrigerator, cabinets, and walls to be a spectacular canvas for her artwork.

Honeypie, age 1 1/2

Honeypie is sweet as pie and loves hugs! She's still very babyish looking and only started walking at about 19 months old. She's got super tender feet and would only take a few steps a day for a long time, as she would get blisters on her feet so easily, but at 21 months she's waddling and toddling around constantly and her feet seem to have toughened up - we haven't seen a blister in over a week, yay! Her favorite word is "uh-oh!" but "Mama" and "sammich" are also popular lately. Usually in combination and used prolifically near meal times. ;)

Baby #5!

A sweet baby girl is due to be born to us in November 2013! She's already fiesty as can be! :)